nashville

Jessica Maros and Tyler James of the band Escondido play at a venue called The Parish on Wed., March 16, as part of SXSW in Austin, Texas (Photo by Meri Simon)

By Michael Mayer
Photos by Meri Simon

The alt-country genre may have seen better days, but Jessica Maros and Tyler James, who lead Nashville’s Escondido, have found a way to make it relevant again. The band, which just released its second album (“Walking With a Stranger”) adds echoes of the soundtracks of Ennio Morricone and the recordings of the band Calexico to create what might be thought of as Southwestern noir. Purring trumpets, soaring guitar and Maros’s delicate voice mixed elegantly in the band’s main showcase at the Parish, one of Austin’s top venues. It was one of several successful shows here for the band, including one in the festival’s smallest venue, a Zipcar, where they serenaded contest winners. The band won’t rest long after its impressive week — it sets out almost immediately on its first nationwide headlining tour.

Let’s get it out of the way. Yes, it is the worst name in rock music. But don’t just write them off as sophomoric; in concert they are a serious musical force. The Nashville sextet wields heavy metal and punk in equal measure, but with a tongue-in-cheek approach, saluting and skewering the cliches of each genre. Their four — yes, four — lead guitarists can drone with the best of them or blaze solos simultaneously. Their fans play along, moshing and crowd surfing without the venom sometimes found in those pits. Every one of their shows at SXSW ended in a sweaty, smiling mass of humanity with band members in hugs with fans.

Diarrhea Planet drove the crowd crazy at Trinity Hall in Austin as part of SXSW. (Photos by Meri Simon)

Move over Quantic Dream, there’s another developer delivering a cinematic-type of experience to gamers. Supermassive Games, best known for its take onLittleBigPlanet on the PlayStation Vita, is expanding its repertoire with a new horror-driven project called Until Dawn. Like Quantic Dream’s other projects, this title captures Hollywood actors’ performances and uses their likenesses to create a game with ultra-realistic visuals.

It’s akin to a playable movie, but in this case, Until Dawn is an episodic experience in which players taking control of eight friends who travel to a mountain lodge. (Yes, it’s basically a Cabin in the Woods-type scenario.) During the stay, they end up trapped and the small party of young people fall victim to murderers in creepy-looking clown masks. Fans familiar with Nashville will recognize Hayden Panettiere in the cast along with Brett Dalton aka Grant Ward from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..

Ashley, left, and Chris stumble upon a body in the cavernous basement of the lodge.

A FEW QUICK QUESTIONS: Before playing, Until Dawn asks players a few questions that influences the scares of the game. It’s reminiscent to what Silent Hill: Shattered Memories did, trying to gauge a player’s mindset with a series of psychological questions. In addition, choices matter in Until Dawn. Small decisions such as taking scissors have a butterfly effect on the narrative.

In the demo, I mostly played as Ashley (Galadrield Stineman) who along with Chris is looking for Sam (Hayden Panittiere) who went missing in the lodge. Using the left analog stick, players move characters around a meticulously detailed basement and shine a flashlight on objects by tilting the DualShock 4 in different directions. The movement along with the light on the controller pushes the feeling of immersion.

As players explore, they’ll run into objects that they can interact with like a dollhouse or a picture on the wall. In some cases, they’ll find diaries or old catalogs and players can flip through them using the touchpad on the controller. This along with the graphical fidelity powered by the same engine that runs Killzone Shadow Fall adds to Until Dawn’s unnerving atmosphere.

There’s a Saw-like moment toward the end of the demo, where players face a weighty choice.

PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR: In some ways, playing the game is like walking through a haunted house. Players will find locked doors and will have to solve light puzzles to get through them. Exploring the lodge, I ran into invisible barriers or areas that were blocked off by things like car batteries. Moments like that ruin the tension.

You know that moment when watching a horror movie and you talk to the screen and say, “Don’t go there or why don’t you just break down that door?” There’s a lot of that in Until Dawn. When Chris and Ashley discover a dead body hanging in a meat locker, I wanted them to remove the mask to see who it is. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t give players the option. Instead, they’re pushed to open a door.

That’s when the psychos wearing the clown masks descend on them. As Ashley, players who chose to pick up the scissors can use it there to stab the attacker. But that doesn’t do much except make them angry and she gets a bruised face for her trouble. And that’s when this horror story, which includes the supernatural (Ashley sees ghosts everywhere.), turns into Saw.

The two end up trapped with saws descending upon them. Players, now in the shoes of Chris, have to make a choice. The psycho clowns force him to make a decision: He can fire at Ashley or he can shoot himself. Players have to decide who to sacrifice. It’s a tense moment, one that works even if the dialogue before gets all horror-movie hokey. The demo ended on that choice, but it’ll be interesting to see how that move affects the rest of the narrative when Until Dawn launches on the PlayStation 4 in the future.Images courtesy of Sony Computer Entertainment America

Yes, it’s the worst name in rock. But the word kept spreading around Austin: “You’ve got to see these guys.” A massive four-guitar attack, hard rock hooks galore and a sense of humor. At no point are fewer than two of the guitarist soloing away, with power chords and multiple voices in support. They called for crowd surfing early on, offering custom made band T-shirts as rewards. The live show is so great, it might doom the band’s recorded music in comparison, but if live is all there was, it’d be enough.